I woke up this morning with the hankering to play a SNES game and pinball. Super Pinball fit the bill, so I worked my way through the three tables in its "story" mode, earned the necessary scores, and accessed the hidden doors to move forward.

First and foremost, yes, there is some kind of story. No, it isn't implemented well, it just pops in at the end. Second, yes, hidden doors. I'll explain in a bit. But first you need to know that Super Pinball is a collection of three virtual pinball tables: Jolly Joker, Blackbeard and the Ironmen, and Wizard. The playfield is angled to look like you are actually playing on a pinball machine, and all important messages are splashed across the stream as opposed to using the LED display in the marquee. While the angle takes a little getting used to, the way the game handles the messaging actually works quite well, and audio queues are used well to back them up. The music is also pretty good, with Wizard being the game's high point for me. I found the tune rather soothing, even when I was stressing over how to gain points on that table.

The general idea of Super Pinball's single player Conquest mode is to beat each table in a row by earning a certain number of points to unlock a timed window and then putting your ball in the proper place to access the next level. The score requirements go up in multiples of 60,000,000, starting with Joker and ending on Wizard. Once the score has been obtained, the "door" opens for 30 seconds. Fail to get it, and you must earn an additional 20,000,000 points to reopen it. Losing your ball in the outhole automatically causes the door to shut too, so try not to do that. Once each table has been beaten, play continues until the player runs out of extra balls. At the end, after all three tables are beaten, the player is given a message showing that you have been given the Joker mask and granted the title of "Wizard," after which you run home. No further explanation is given beyond a "To be continued..." message, though Super Pinball II was unfortunately Super Famicom only.

But onto the tables. Each pinball table you play offers similar hidden games, but the layouts vary significantly. This causes each table to be prone to different circumstances to gain score. Every table offers bumpers, drop targets which increase your bonus multipliers, lanes that can be run for growing amounts of points, a Mystery section which lets you gain points, access minigames built into the board(which have different names on the different tables but all do the same thing), and serves as the door needed to advance, a random bonus section which gives points or enables the minigames to be accessed, and a bonus letter system which accesses Multiball mode. Joker I found to be the easiest to access the bumpers and the drop targets, though the usefulness of multipliers is debatable considering your ball must be in play to open the forbidden door. Blackbeard has a lane called Skeleton that is relatively easy to access with your ball, resulting in lots of points after so many passes through it, but I found this one had the hardest door for me to access. Wizard I found to be the easiest to access the bonus letter system, which caused me to activate Multiball numerous times, far more than the other two tables combined.

Each table has its strengths, and despite their similarities, they do all feel different. I struggle to say which one I liked the most because they were all enjoyable once I learned my way around. Wizard I encountered some small issues in, such as a lane that basically spat my ball directly into the outhole if I wasn't paying attention. I also noticed there during Multiball that the balls do not interact and will pass through each other. Still, as I spent the most time with it, I suppose that one ended up becoming my favorite, despite occasionally feeling like the action was stalling out.

Overall I liked Super Pinball well enough, but I think I prefer Pinball Dreams instead. This game certainly gets the feeling of pinball down, but I don't find the tables as impressive. The angle can also be bothersome. Plus the attempt to tack on a story just comes across as weird. There is competitive multiplayer so up to 4 people can take turns battling for a high score on the three tables, but I don't know how likely it is these days that you'll find three other folks who want to play pinball on a Super Nintendo together.

Another one of those games from my youth I could never beat. Hell, it was a miracle if I made it to the third stage. Fuck that pink electric kelp corridor. Of course, these days I get through that with maybe a single hit (really wonky hitboxes there). And now I've knocked another one off the list.

This game is known for its difficulty, but most of the difficulty is not the well implemented kind like Ninja Gaiden. The difficulty tends to come from the awful jump physics and the lack of invincibility when taking a hit. Jumping in this game is super floaty and once you've started moving horizontally it's neigh impossible to pick a specific spot to land on; the game continues to apply some horizontal velocity no matter how you try to correct. So if you want to land somewhere you either need to do a straight vertical jump (really only relevant for the half pizza in the sewer in stage 3) or be jumping from far enough away that your curve just lands where you want to be. Additionally, stage 2 includes a leap where you jump after technically leaving the platform; sort of like a toe jump from Mega Man except it doesn't feel like the engine should support it. And the game does the you can run over single block gaps, except again it doesn't feel like this should work. I think it only works because it takes a while for gravity to notice you. This becomes a possible death point in the final area before the boss of stage 4.

On the flip side, the game has some terrible balance among the turtles. The idea of being able to switch between them with their weapons handling differently is an interesting idea. The problem is that Don is the best by far; he does the most damage and has the widest reach. Raph has a shitty reach and does minimal damage. There's essentially no tradeoffs; there's a very clear hierarchy of turtles (Don > Leo > Mike > Raph). On the plus side, this means you can use a turtle as a meat shield to get through tough areas.

The thing that really sucks, though, is the utter lack of invincibility you get. This is where a lot of deaths come from, as your lead turtle might get low and before you can switch takes another hit and dies. That's what forced my only game over on me in the final stage; I was working through the spikes and took an extra hit with my meat shield turtle that I wasn't expecting. I didn't have enough health in reserve amongst the rest of the team to make it through.

The main thing that helps alleviate some of this is the fact that transitioning between inside and overworld will respawn pizzas. There are a few that are right next to an entrance, so these become checkpoints essentially; once you get to them you can refill and continue on.

Also, most of the bosses are a joke, thanks to Don. Bebop will get in a hit or two but Rocksteady can be cheesed. The Mechaturtle again dies fast to Don. The Giant Mouser cannot hit you if you're Don while you do tons of damage, and Shredder can be stunlocked by Don. The Technodrome is the only real threat due to having a bunch of parts that can damage you that take a fair number of hits to kill. But once you get the two guns and the hatch you're home free.

So glad to be done with this one. It's nice to finally get a bunch of my childhood games down.

Games Beaten: 2015201620172018Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.

I beat this years back for my first alphabet marathon, and I found it interesting that the dam was considered so hard - I found it fairly easy.

Some of the later levels are dicks though - especially the final corridor of the technodrome.

The only method I found to deal with that was to stock up on the scroll subweapon in like stage 3 or 4 for all 4 turtles, and run right ahead in that section whilst spamming it. I still had to swap turtles a lot as they kept running low on health.

For what it's worth, I thought Mikey was better than Leo. Leo has longer range, but the weakest weapon. Mikey does more damage which is more important in later levels imo.

Last edited by alienjesus on Sun Oct 18, 2015 1:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I actually didn't have problems with that last corridor. In the beginning it's just duck down until the flying guys are past you then move forward, in the narrow section you use Don to one shot the robots, then when the flying guy gets on screen stop immediately; he'll back up off screen and despawn.

I don't think the game is difficult like how Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania are difficult. There's just several ways it likes to cheaply damage/kill you. And the precision platforming with a terribly non-precise jump physics in the sewers at the end of stage 3.

Games Beaten: 2015201620172018Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.

MrPopo wrote:I actually didn't have problems with that last corridor. In the beginning it's just duck down until the flying guys are past you then move forward...

The last time I played this game (I was a teenager) I aced the game up until this point. I spent an afternoon stocking up on 99 scrolls for each Turtle, something I had never taken the time to do, and thought I'd be invincible. I really believed my victory was at hand.

Not only did those flying guys not die from one scroll, they didn't die from TWO. I got obliterated and it was Game Over. I was already angry at what I perceived as an impossible situation, but can you imagine my rage when I discovered on the internet that you can just duck under them?

I haven't gone back to play it since. I think I just might. Thanks for the inspiration, Popo. It's time to take this sucker down.

BogusMeatFactory wrote:If I could powder my copies of shenmue and snort them I would

Key-Glyph wrote:I haven't gone back to play it since. I think I just might. Thanks for the inspiration, Popo. It's time to take this sucker down.

I believe in you. Remember, outside the super tight corridor just duck under as they pass you and then move past. In the tight corridor stop immediately when they come on screen and they'll immediately back off screen and despawn.

Games Beaten: 2015201620172018Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.

MrPopo wrote:I actually didn't have problems with that last corridor. In the beginning it's just duck down until the flying guys are past you then move forward...

The last time I played this game (I was a teenager) I aced the game up until this point. I spent an afternoon stocking up on 99 scrolls for each Turtle, something I had never taken the time to do, and thought I'd be invincible. I really believed my victory was at hand.

Not only did those flying guys not die from one scroll, they didn't die from TWO. I got obliterated and it was Game Over. I was already angry at what I perceived as an impossible situation, but can you imagine my rage when I discovered on the internet that you can just duck under them?

I haven't gone back to play it since. I think I just might. Thanks for the inspiration, Popo. It's time to take this sucker down.

They still shoot you though, and those corridors get really narrow as you progress/